Trump admin seeking to get money to Venezuela's Guaido

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Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido delivers a speech to supporters during a rally to commemorate May Day on May 1, 2019 (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)

Washington (CNN)The Trump administration is looking for ways to financially bolster Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by the US as the country's interim president, with an influx of cash, which could involve freeing up frozen assets or loans.

The initiative is meant to help Guaido pay Venezuelan military and government workers, three US officials have told CNN, part of a broader effort to shatter embattled President Nicolas Maduro's hold on power, which one senior administration official said is shrinking.

"They are trying to figure out how do you help the interim government be able to provide paychecks, that kind of stuff, so that there is an ability to say, 'hey we are a functioning government,'" a senior Republican aide on Capitol Hill told CNN, speaking on background to discuss internal administration deliberations. "That would include payments to various people, including those in the military."

The administration is considering a variety of ways of getting funding and humanitarian aid to the 35-year-old Guaido, the Hill source said.

Delivering the money

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The US is unlikely to fly cash directly into Venezuela, sources and experts explained, given Venezuela's air defense system. The Trump administration could also have money flown into a neighboring country, such as Colombia, and then bring it over the border into Venezuela.

The Treasury Department could ease sanctions on state-owned companies in a targeted way that funnels funds to Guaido, said Michael Dobson, a former Treasury official who also said Americans can donate to the opposition.

The Trump administration has been focused on supporting Guaido financially since they first recognized him as Venezuela's official leader in January, seeing funding as key to stabilizing the country and securing his leadership. The US-educated president of the National Assembly is now recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela's interim president.

Just two days after Guaido declared himself interim president of Venezuela, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave him the right to wield control over Venezuelan government assets in the US, including property and bank accounts.

Last Month National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow explained efforts are in the works to get Guaido -- and the Venezuelan people -- the economic backing that would be necessary.

"We have a lot of plans to revitalize the Venezuelan economy and move very rapidly," Kudlow said. "There's a financial plan. There's food planning. Getting cash to the people on the streets. Working with banks in the region to help us."

Kudlow also said the US would consider using "banks, iPhones, apps and many clever ways to get cash" into Venezuela to support Guaido.

In the months since January, other governments that recognize Guaido, including in Europe and the Caribbean, have frozen Venezuelan state assets, including bank accounts. "It's happening all over the world," said Kevin Ivers, a Latin America expert with the DCI Group, adding that Maduro has been scrambling to try to access these assets.

Venezuelan state assets "all over the world are vulnerable," Ivers said.

Crucial timing

One senior administration official said it's particularly crucial to help Guaido now, as they see Maduro's inner circle eroding. But the initiative also comes as Guaido told reporters in Caracas on Wednesday that his attempt to force Maduro's hand was faltering, in part because he hadn't received enough backing from the military.

Venezuela's security apparatus has been a crucial source of support for Maduro, who has courted its senior leaders by giving them lucrative concessions including control over the cross-border drug trade. Guaido has repeatedly called on the armed forces to take "the side of the people."

"We have to acknowledge that yesterday there were not enough, we have to insist that all the armed forces protest together," Guaido said. "We are not asking for a confrontation. We are not asking for a confrontation among brothers, it's the opposite. We just want them to be on the side of the people."

Some of Maduro's closest allies, including those in the security forces, had been talking to the opposition about ousting the embattled heir to Hugo Chavez and backing Guaido, national security adviser John Bolton and others said on Tuesday.

'Pissed'

But that support failed to materialize when Guaido launched what he called the final phase of "Operation Freedom" on April 30.

Some analysts say that could be because Guaido had made his announcement a day earlier than he was expected to. The early move left the top brass at the State Department "really caught off guard and pissed," a source familiar with State discussions about the situation told CNN.

As of last Friday, US embassy Caracas staff were being told to get ready to return to the Venezuelan capital, possibly within the next two weeks, to "reopen" the embassy, the source said. "It seemed, in anticipation of something happening."

On Tuesday the head of Venezuela's secret police broke ranks with Maduro in an open letter, criticizing the "thieves and scoundrels" and the country's corruption just hours before he was replaced.

But broader military support has failed to materialize.

In an interview Wednesday night, US Special Representative to Venezuela Elliott Abrams said that many military officials in Venezuela that the US had been trying to pull away from Maduro had "turned off their cellphones."